Local News & Events | Haas Factory Outlet

If you’re like most CNC shop owners you’re a hands-on person who probably started out running jobs yourself. Nowadays, however, you may find yourself everywhere but on your shop floor. You meet with customers and suppliers, track down job opportunities, keep up on the latest machining technologies and sift through paperwork.

At a recent roundtable discussion attended by a dozen Ohio CNC machine shop owners, a main topic of discussion was the difficulty filling shop floor jobs. All agreed that there is a dearth of qualified candidates for a number of reasons including:

Investing in great CNC machine technology is one of the keys to improving productivity, especially if you’ve invested wisely in equipment that provides the best ROI. However, the quest for greater productivity doesn’t begin and end with CNC machines. There’s also the human factor to consider. Are your people as productive as they could be? If not, the first place to look for improvement is in the mirror.

There are many young people struggling to decide on their career choices, and some have the aptitude to become the next generation of manufacturers. Unfortunately, they often have misconceptions about the nature of modern machine shops. They may even see them as dead-end jobs with unpleasant working conditions. That’s why it’s important to participate in Career Days and other events that offer the opportunity to give these youngsters these facts:

Running a CNC machine shop means wearing a lot of hats. You find the work, see that the work gets done, bill and collect payments, hire, train and develop your team, deal with problem employees and government regulations, and, of course, keep a careful eye on your finances.

Many CNC machine shop owners tell us they have a hard time finding dependable, competent workers, and sometimes hire people that seem to have good experience but end up being a bad fit. Part of the problem is that we may not look deeply enough into the character of a potential new hire. Obviously you’ll want to learn about the person’s job experiences and skill sets, but you also need to get a feel for such traits as work ethic, loyalty, honesty and integrity. The references the applicant gives you are likely hand-picked and may not be forthcoming about these attributes.

In today’s competitive manufacturing world, productivity is the key to success, so we invest in people and equipment that can make us more efficient. For CNC machine shop managers getting the most out of our own workday is often a challenge. There are always interruptions, unexpected problems and fires to put out. So how can we juggle all of our responsibilities and still be productive?

Most CNC shops have one or more credit cards they use to help manage their finances, which makes perfect sense. However shop owners may not be aware that certain safeguards governing our personal credit cards do not apply to the business cards we use. The federal government’s Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure Act of 2009 (CARD Act) provides a number of protections for consumers against fraud liability, unfair rate hikes, late fees, over limit fees and more, but these safeguards do not apply to business credit card holders.

Reportedly the federal government is taking a much closer look at how workers are classified and if employers are abiding by appropriate employee wage and hours laws. For CNC machine shops, a major concern is the distinction between non-exempt and exempt employees.

Employee performance reviews can be valuable tools to help your CNC machine shop be more successful. However they must be done regularly and with adequate forethought or they can do more harm than good. Here are a few tips that can make the review process more beneficial for both you and your employees.